Although summer is scarcely under way, the fast-forward fashion timetable has already put these prints on the sale racks to make room for the fall lines. Customers are taking advantage of the markdowns to find new ways to apply the customized jeans trend to their plaid purchases. Patchwork pants have been seen cut into clamdiggers and shorts with unfinished edges; waistbands are being carefully ripped off, shirt collars and pockets are torn and pinned.

Which all gives new meaning to the sale phrase ''drastically slashed.''